1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a supplying apparatus for feeding plural rows of recording material to a recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A magazine is set in a photosensitive-material processing apparatus of a printer processor or the like used in a photofinishing laboratory. The magazine contains a roll-form photosensitive material being as an image recording material. Various types of the magazines are provided in accordance with widths of the photosensitive material, and the magazines are used so as to be changed in accordance with a print size and so forth. The photosensitive material advanced from the magazine is cut in a predetermined length and is carried to an exposing section, a developing section, a drying section and a stacking section in this order. In the exposing section, an image is printed on the basis of image data obtained by reading the image, which is recorded on a photo film and so forth. In the developing section, the exposed photosensitive material is developed. By the way, the stacking section is provided as need arises. The photosensitive-material processing apparatus usually takes a lot of time for a developing process rather than an exposing process. Consequently, when the photosensitive material is successively exposed and developed, the developing process lags behind the exposing process. In other words, developing ability determines processing ability of the whole apparatus.
In order to improve the developing ability, multi-row feeding of the photosensitive material is performed. For instance, the multi-row feeding is performed such that the photosensitive-material processing apparatus is loaded with the plural magazines, which are disposed in parallel and contain the narrow photosensitive material (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 8-314022). In another way, plural photosensitive materials attached to a spool of the same magazine are advanced at once and are cut by a single cutter (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 2001-56511 and 11-202418). In the other way, the multi-row feeding is performed such that the wide photosensitive material is exposed so as to print some images and is cut in a longitudinal direction and in a width direction (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-202418). In the other way, the multi-row feeding is performed by moving a cylinder attached to a magazine as a sorting device (see Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 6-347914, which is a counterpart of Japanese Patent No. 2872231).
In the above Publication No. 8-314022, however, when the multi-row feeding is performed, it is necessary to prepare the magazines in accordance with the widths of the photosensitive materials. Further, it is also necessary to prepare driving mechanisms corresponding to the magazines. Thus, a structure of the apparatus becomes complicated so that it takes costs. In the above Publication Nos. 2001-56511 and 11-202418, since the photosensitive materials are carried by a single driving unit and are cut by a single cutter, it is impossible to cut the photosensitive materials at different lengths. In a case it is required to print only one image, it is impossible to perform single-row feeding in that any one of the attached photosensitive materials is advanced. In the above Publication No. 6-347914, the magazine containing the photosensitive material has a considerable weight so that a great load of inertia is caused at the time of stoppage after a reciprocating operation performed by the cylinder. Accordingly, it is difficult to stably set the magazine to a stop position with accuracy. Moreover, it is difficult to perform high-seed printing, since the magazine is reciprocated at the time of the multi-row feeding. Further, insofar as the sorting device is necessary, a rearranging device is also necessary to rearrange photographic papers in an exposure order. The structure of the apparatus becomes more complicated.